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The following is the Introduction toOn the Emancipation of Women, a collection of the key articles and speeches on women’s liberation
by Russian revolutionary V.I. Lenin, published by Resistance Books. On the
Emancipation of Women is available online
at http://www.resistancebooks.com.

* * *

The persistence of gender
inequality in the most advanced capitalist societies, with the most complete
bourgeois democracy in which women have full formal equality, has put paid to
the idea that women's liberation is possible within the framework of
capitalism, even in its "healthiest" periods of expansion. Today, in
a period of global capitalist stagnation and crisis, as the "gender
gap" widens and women, especially in the Third World, bear the brunt of
the capitalist class's neo-liberal offensive against the working class as a
whole, the correctness of the Marxist analysis of women's oppression as a
cornerstone of class society and its revolutionary approach to achieving
women's liberation is clearer than ever before.

Conrick's History of the
Australian Labor Party originally appeared in Direct Action (the precursor to Green Left Weekly),
newspaper of the Socialist Workers League of Australia, between December 21, 1972,
and June 14, 1973, and was published as a pamphlet by the Socialist
Workers Party in 1979. The SWP is now the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP). This digital version was created by Ozleft. The pamphlet reflected the DSP's attitude towards the ALP at that time, however significant changes were introduced to this viewpoint in the 1980s. This document should be read in conjuction with The ALP and the Fight for Socialism. See also The ALP, the Nuclear Disarmament Party and the 1984 elections.

On
August 17, 1985 the National Committee of the Democratic Socialist
Perpective (then named the Socialist Workers Party) voted to end the
party’s affiliation to the Fourth International, the international
organisation founded in 1938 by the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky
and his supporters around the world.

This
decision, which was subsequently endorsed by the DSP’s 11th Congress,
held in Canberra in January 1986, was the result of a process of
rethinking within the DSP about many of the ideas it had shared in
common with other parties adhering to the Trotskyist movement.

The Chinese revolution was one of the most important
events of the twentieth century. The victory of the revolution in 1949 was a
major defeat for imperialism. The new Communist Party government carried out
democratic measures such as land reform, and improved the conditions of workers
and peasants through the spread of health care and literacy. It began
expropriating industry, and within a few years had nationalised all capitalist
enterprises. It proclaimed that the revolution had entered the socialist stage.

A Lego recreation of Jeff Widener's 1989 photograph of "The unknown rebel".

But the new state was bureaucratically distorted from
its inception. The bureaucrats enjoyed substantial privileges. They repressed
dissent amongst workers, peasants, students and intellectuals. And they engaged
in violent power struggles amongst themselves, undermining the gains of the
revolution.

[This article first appeared in the Democratic Socialist Party's internal discussion bulletin The Activist - Volume 10, Number 9, October 2000.]

By Doug Lorimer

Last year I wrote a letter to Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the
Labour Party Pakistan, responding to his request for our leadership's disagreements
with the Committee for a Workers' International's view of Cuba. The letter
took the form of an extended polemic against Socialist Party of England
and Wales (SPEW) general secretary Peter Taaffe's 1982 pamphlet Cuba:
Analysis of the Revolution. The letter was subsequently printed in
The Activist for the information of DSP members. In June this year
[2000] the CWI published a book by Peter Taaffe replying to my letter to Comrade
Tariq entitled Cuba: Socialism and Democracy.

The
following article was written at the request of Farooq Tariq, general
secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan, as an initial contribution to a
discussion between the LPP and the DSP on the character of the
leadership of the Cuban socialist state and the Communist Party of
Cuba. It was published in the Volume 9, Number 4, 1999, edition of The
Activist, the Democratic Socialist Party's internal discussion bulletin.

By Doug Lorimer

Peter
Taaffe's pamphlet on Cuba (first published in 1978 and reprinted in
1982) consists of three articles taken from the paper of the British
Militant organisation (now called the Socialist Party), of which he
was, and still is, general secretary. The first article presents an
analysis of the revolutionary struggle in Cuba up to the expropriation
of capitalist property and the establishment of a planned economy. The
second article analyses the character of the group which led the Cuban
socialist revolution, the central conclusion of which is indicated by
the article's title: "Power in the Hands of [a] Bureaucratic Elite".
The third article is an attempt to substantiate this view in the light
of the foreign and domestic policies of this leadership group.

The basic conclusion of the pamphlet is set out at the end of the third article:

May 10, 2008 -- There is a myth perpetrated by some on the left, that there never really was a revolution in Cuba.
The Cuban “revolution”, they claim, was just the result of the collapse
of the brutal, US-backed Batista regime, followed by the filling of the
political vacuum by the few hundred guerrillas that made up the July 26
Movement (J26M). These fighters simply marched down from the mountains
to take power in Havana, installing the Castro brothers as virtual
dictators.

When one sees a modern city from the air, especially at night, it is a truly
awe-inspiring spectacle. What always strikes me is the immensity of the
project, a testimony to the power and creativity of human beings. However, on
the ground and actually living and working in this wonder, things are quite
different and the social and ecological problems crowd in and fill one’s view.
The truth
is that our cities have always been dominated by the rich and powerful and
built and operated to serve their needs — not those of the mass of working
people who live and toil in them.

* * *

This
article is based on a talk presented at the Climate Change | Social Change
Conference in Sydney, April 2008. The conference was organised byGreen Left Weekly. For more articles, audio and video from the conference, click here.

A talk to the Climate Change Social Change Conference held in Sydney from April 11 to 13, 2008, organised by Green Left Weekly. For more articles, audio and video from the conference, click here.

April 13, 2008 -- I’m
sure everybody here is aware of the basic facts of global warming and
the likely consequences if rapid and serious action is not taken. There
is virtually unanimous agreement among scientists and activists, and
increasingly among millions of ordinary people, about the degree of the
problem and the time frame we have to make fundamental changes to
address it.

Below are two articles discussing the protests against the Olympic torch relay by supporters of Tibet's right to national self-determination. The first appeared in Green Left Weekly. The second is by Pierre Rousset, a member of the French Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) and editor of the Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
(ESSF) website. It was translated for Links -- International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- by Katie Cherrington.

***

Pro-Tibet protests grow — why Tibet deserves justice

By Tony Iltis

April 19, 2008 -- Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
police have been given enhanced stop-and-search powers for dealing with
protests planned for the Canberra leg of the global Olympic torch relay
on April 24. This comes as protests by the Tibetan diaspora and their
supporters have turned the torch’s world tour into a public relations
disaster for the Beijing Olympics.

March 28, 2008 -- A
demonstration by Buddhist monks in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on March
10 to commemorate the anniversary of China’s crushing of the Tibetan
independence movement in 1959 triggered protests for self-determination
that, by March 14, had escalated into anti-Chinese riots in which 19
people were killed.

Over 100 Tibetans are reported to have been killed, and hundreds more arrested, by Chinese occupation forces.

This eruption of mass anger — that spread to cities throughout the
Tibetan Autonomous Region and the neighbouring provinces of Gansu,
Qinghai and Sichuan, historically part of Tibet and with large ethnic
Tibetan communities — was a response not only to the 58-year-old
Chinese military occupation of Tibet, but to the dispossession and
marginalisation of Tibetans by an influx of both global capital and Han
Chinese transmigrants.

Below are salutes to Cuban President Fidel Castro following his announcement on February 18 that he will not stand for the position again. The first is from Australia's Democratic Socialist Perspective, followed by a message from the Socialist Party of Malaysia.